31/10/11

30/10/11

29/10/11

28/10/11

Afternoon all! Sunny day here in Cardiff.

Found this lurking on my hard drive:

The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists.
G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

27/10/11

26/10/11

Thaumaturge editing the header in hopes that it appears. Disqus is acting up and, in order to see all of today's posts, it seems you have to write a comment and refresh - then you'll see the lot. Up to that point, anyway. Meh.

As of 6:48 pm, there are at least 17 comments, not bloody 6 as Disqus claims.

25/10/11

New thread!

24/10/11

23/10/11

*Insert something interesting of your choice here.

22/10/11

21/10/11

Photo: Robert Hooper

20/10/11

19/10/11

18/10/11

Having just watched Chekhov's link to the Kaiser report in which Max correctly called the notion that that OWS should demand the removal of the state nonsense. I thought that it might be appropriate to consider Engels on the subject.

“The state is, therefore, by no means a power forced on society from without; just as little is it 'the reality of the ethical idea', 'the image and reality of reason', as Hegel maintains. Rather, it is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it has split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, these classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, it became necessary to have a power, seemingly standing above society, that would alleviate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of 'order'; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and alienating itself more and more from it, is the state." (Pp.177-78, sixth edition)^[1]

17/10/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liBjJPiglUk

16/10/11

15/10/11

14/10/11

better late than not at all. major Internet outage round here.

13/10/11

12/10/11

11/10/11

So, why do articles like this always get immigrant jokes and not much else? Are invasive species different from immigrants? Should they be treated differently?

Moths article in the Guardian

10/10/11

09/10/11

08/10/11

07/10/11

06/10/11

05/10/11

04/10/11

03/10/11

02/10/11

01/10/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaGUr6wzyT8